Feijóo had lunch last Tuesday with his territorial leaders after the party's Executive Committee. Genoa is worried that the “barons” will fall asleep in the European elections on June 9 and not pull the PP's electoral machine as if they were the ones who were risking their political future.
From Madrid they have already given instructions so that there is greater coordination of strategies and everything is submitted to the interest of the national PP, as a general basic principle, and especially now, in the face of a European campaign that after the result of the elections in Catalonia can still be most decisive in the future of the coalition Government. In the popular leadership they have already detected territorial movements that in some cases serve more “individual interest than that of the whole”, and this includes, for example, the relationship with ministers or the one that “allows themselves to be used to campaign for the Government.” .
In any case, the result of the Catalans changes the scenario, although in the official discourse they do not seem to be aware of it – intentionally -, and the first decision of the PP is to continue using the figure of Carles Puigdemont as the main hook to move to the right. There is, in addition, a mobilization already called against the amnesty for the end of the month, and the PSOE is playing against it by using the results in Catalonia as proof that Pedro Sánchez's policy has served to cool the separatist problem. That the national leadership of the PP – despite the departure of the regional leader, Alejandro Fernández – talks about how Spain is still under the threat of the “procés” is a way to combat this socialist campaign that insists on ending the threat of sovereignty .
And that is where the PP is linked to Puigdemont, with the same shared interest from antagonistic positions at the territorial level, but not in the right versus left axis. Although there is not going to be any agreement on the future government of the Generalitat before the European vote, the PP's strategy has as its main ally the pressure that the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia will continue to directly support the head of the Executive. central.
And that is why they will not lower their tone nor will they enter into any negotiation process with the PSC that supports the thesis that Sánchez is responsible for the cooling of the threat that ERC and Junts represent for Spain and for national coexistence.
At Feijóo's lunch with his barons they talked a lot about this electoral strategy for the Europeans, and there is a basic consensus on the “no” to opening up to any type of pact with the PSC. This is a tricky debate for the PP, because within the satellites that move in the orbit of the right there are already voices that defend the PP seeking the pact with Salvador Illa. Voices that ignore that the agreement with the PP is an option that the former minister has not raised nor does the President of the Government want. And it would also demand that the latter break all its agreements with ERC and Junts in Madrid.
«We should not even negotiate with Illa. “If we do it, Vox will eat us.” The greatest danger is, once again, in the president of the Catalan PP, due to his strategy of going it alone on some sensitive issues. But the consensus of Genoa with the barons on this “no” to the socialist candidate is firm, and he is not subject to how some of the variables that center the political debate evolve. The defense of this position is also supported by the argument that Illa “can be whatever, but neither the PSC nor Sánchez's PSOE are trustworthy.”
If Sánchez has already moved the direction to present the European campaign as a plebiscite on his policy in Catalonia, the PP also has to redirect the course to emphasize that 9J is the opportunity to build a wall against new concessions from Sánchez to Puigdemont: the fiscal pact for Catalonia and the self-determination referendum.
Although the results in Catalonia have been good for the PP, and the sum of the three electoral processes held in recent months also went in favor of the popular ones, however the PP electoral team does not deny that the European campaign can be complicated by the oxygen ball that Catalonia has once again given to the PSOE, as already happened in the last general elections.
Sánchez is stronger today than before the regional elections, even if this strength has a point of mirage, since the closing of the negotiation of the pacts in Catalonia could end up blowing up his national legislature.
For now, Sánchez and Feijóo are not giving themselves a break and are now entering directly into the 9J election campaign under that shadow that hangs over the political debate and that suggests that there could be an advance of the general elections for autumn.
If the PP does not manage to gain a considerable advantage over the PSOE in these next European elections in June, Moncloa will feel legitimized to vindicate its policy with the independence movement, now from the conclusion that it has been supported throughout the national territory.